In the News

Systems have the data to track students, the leverage to facilitate collaboration and the authority to create transfer policies, says Nancy L Zimpher The US’ higher education delivery system is leaky at best. We are seeing record declines in enrolment due to a number of societal and economic factors, including rhetoric that questions the value…

Public university systems should invest in training and support for quality teaching, Félix V. Matos Rodríguez and Penny MacCormack write. As the pandemic hits the two-year mark and higher education takes full stock of its impact, the challenges we face are multiple—but so are the opportunities. We face the largest enrollment decline in a decade.…

With war and displacement atop most news agendas right now, higher education has a huge part to play in the US’ national response When the United States pulled out of Afghanistan this past summer, tens of thousands of refugees fled ahead of the Taliban. Many of them ended up in the US, where they will…

If picking a college comes down to the financial bottom line, then an in-state public school is often the best deal. “In-state tuition is half to two-thirds lower than out-of-state,” said Mark Kantrowitz, author of “How to Appeal for More College Financial Aid.” Since the start of the pandemic, students and their families are increasingly…

Picking the right college has increasingly become a question of cost. But not everyone is choosing the most economical option. Since the start of the Covid pandemic, college enrollment has continued to sink. For the most part, community colleges are the hardest hit, followed by public four-year colleges, according to a report by the National…

In last week’s Teaching newsletter, Beth McMurtie and Carl Weiman share an email exchange where he accuses college and university leaders of having a “lack of an understanding that there really is expertise on teaching.” That’s just plain wrong.  

Between sky-high costs and hefty student loan debt, more students and their families are questioning the value of a college degree. While about 81% of college-bound juniors and seniors still see college as a worthwhile investment, only 42% of families feel confident about covering the cost, according to a report by Sallie Mae. As a…

When you introduce a new idea to higher education, there is inevitably discussion, debate and discord. This has certainly been true with the notion of “systemness,” which we introduced to SUNY and the higher education sector around a decade ago. In fact, we were delighted to see the term invoked in a Jan. 6 article…

The National Association of System Heads and more than 100 higher education leaders convened this week to launch the Power of Systems—a national initiative that calls on a network of public university systems to address several pressing issues in higher education. The initiative will aim to improve credential completion and social mobility and to reduce…